There is a reason that when young fighters turn professional they begin by boxing nondescript opponents in four- and six-round fights. The reason is the newly turned professional has much to learn and if overmatched those lessons will be painful and potentially career altering.
This is not a debatable point. It is a fact of fistic existence. Experience counts in boxing because unlike most sports, mistakes are not simply moments for embarrassment. Inside the ring they can become concussive events in which the lights go dim.
That is why the decision Wednesday by AIBA, the shady organization that runs international amateur boxing, allowing professional boxers into the Rio De Janeiro Summer Olympics is so incredibly unwise and ill-founded.
Of the 88 federations that gathered in Lausanne, Switzerland, 84 approved the change with four abstentions. As with most dictatorships, the vote was nearly unanimous but that doesn?t mean it was right. Or even sane.
?This is a momentous occasion for AIBA, Olympic boxing and for our sport as a whole and represents another great leap forward in the evolution of boxing,? AIBA president Ching-Kuo Wu said after the vote.
Actually it was a monumentally absurd occasion that was a great leap off a cliff because amateur boxers no more belong in the ring with experienced professionals than you do. That is particularly true now that AIBA also has chosen to take the headgear off Olympic boxers, making them more vulnerable to being sent into the dark room by someone like former junior welterweight champion Amir Khan, who is one of few prizefighters to come out in favor of the Olympics decision.
?If I am permitted, as per rules and from my promoter, then I would love to compete for Pakistan,? said Khan, who?s of Pakistani descent and won a silver medal for his native Great Britain in the 2004 Olympics in Athens. ?I will be very happy if I can compete in the Olympics. I want to serve Pakistan.?
One would think Khan would have recovered by now from the devastating knockout he suffered at the hands of Saul ?Canelo? Alvarez last month. Apparently not.
While most slots have already been awarded for Rio, interested professionals will be allowed into a final qualifier that begins July 3 in Venezuela. While not many are likely to enter, Khan sounds ready and Manny Pacquiao expressed an interest before deciding the demands of his budding political career in the Philippines precluded it. Imagine Pacquiao, a world champion in eight weight classes, stepping in against some 19-year-old kid from Topeka or Topsfield?
Unified light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev also expressed interest in representing Russia but his promoter, Kathy Duva, quickly squashed the idea.
?There?s no chance that?s happening,? Duva said last week. ?It wouldn?t happen this year. It?s just not possible. He has a contract for a fight in July and then (again) later in the year, so no chance, not even a discussion. I don?t even want to think about what he?d do to an amateur. It?s absurd.?
Indeed it is. This being boxing, that?s why it?s happening.
?Professional vs. amateur boxers is a real crime,? said Julio Cesar Chavez, the greatest Mexican fighter in boxing history. ?It is attacking the very roots of boxing. It endangers the lives and careers of young talented (amateur) boxers.?
Former heavyweight champion Larry Holmes not only opposes the idea, he said the removing amateur?s headgear is equally ill-advised. He quite rightly argued those decisions are commercial ones designed to bring AIBA greater power in professional boxing, not designed to help amateurs or the Olympics. Holmes always was one of the smartest fighters around. He still is.
Said former cruiserweight and heavyweight champion David Haye: ?All it?s going to take is one 17-year-old kid from Sweden fighting an American 30-year-old current world champion, puts the poor kid into a coma and then everyone will ask: ?Why did you allow that to happen?? Why would you allow that 17-year-old boy to fight this 30-year-old man who has already won the Olympics 10 years ago? What?s the point??
AIBA?s semi-professional World Series of Boxing gaining a foothold in the pro game is the point. Beyond that there is no point but this: There is another disaster for the sport waiting to happen soon at the Olympic Games.
Stormin? Thurman
WBA welterweight champion Keith Thurman wants to become boxing?s next superstar and he has the punching power and the charisma to do it. What he needs is a higher profile ? and he?ll have a chance to increase his June 25 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn when he faces the challenge of former IBF champion Shawn Porter on a prime-time CBS broadcast.
This is a legit prime-time event and Thurman (26-0, 22 KOs) is hoping to establish credibility in front of a national TV audience that won?t have to pay to watch him but may be eager to do so the next time he fights, if he does what he hopes.
?Hopefully a knockout,? Thurman said when asked his goal against Porter. ?My goal is to be known as the hardest hitting welterweight in the division. . . .
?I?m coming to bring it. Shawn is coming to bring it. It?ll be a great fight. We are two of the top welterweights in the division. Two of the youngest and strongest welterweights in the sport going toe-to-toe.?
Thurman is quite right about that. It?s no boast, nor hype. It?s as real as it gets.
Porter (26-1-1, 16 KOs) destroyed Devin Alexander and Paulie Malignaggi during his reign as IBF champion but lost a majority decision and the title last year when he was outpointed by Kell Brook. He?s won twice since, including a lopsided victory over former junior welterweight champion Adrian Broner.
But Thurman calls himself ?One Time? for a reason. It?s his belief ? and it?s been borne out ? that he hits you one time and you go to sleep. If that happens at some point in prime time, folks will want to see him again.
Fatherly advice
If your dad is a boxing fan, historian Mike Silver has the perfect Father?s Day gift for you. Much of what makes boxing great is the richness of its history and the fact that, unlike most sports, the endeavor itself has not changed much over the decades ? so comparisons of greatness are more relevant than in other constantly evolving sports.
Silver has penned a reminder of how one area of the sport has radically altered from the Golden Days of yore.
?Stars in the Ring,? subtitled ?Jewish champions in the Golden Age of Boxing,? is a compilation of all the great Jewish fighters including Abe Attell, Benny Leonard, Ted ?Kid?? Lewis, Barney Ross, Lew Tendler and Battling Levinsky. It is a reminder too that boxing has always been the sport of those fighting from the bottom of the barrel for a better existence.
One can chart the history of immigration in America through boxing, each ethnic group having its time at the top of the ring and the bottom of the heap. There are few great Jewish fighters today because there doesn?t need to be, but once there was a time when boxing was filled with them.
Silver introduces you to them all, from the bare knuckle champion Daniel Mendoza to the 1960s. Silver goes on to discuss what?s happened to boxing and to Jewish fighters since, pointing out that if America is the ?Great Melting Pot,? boxing is its steaming cauldron where no group stays longer than it has to.
Short jabs
It appears WBC light heavyweight champion Adonis Stevenson will face top contender Thomas Williams July 16, most likely in Montreal. Williams (20-1, 14 KOs) won that right by knocking out Worcester?s Edwin Rodriguez April 30 with a shot at Stevenson (27-1, 22 KO) on the line. . . .
WBO welterweight champion Jessie Vargas (27-1, 10 KOs) agreed last week to face undefeated IBF champion Brook (36-0, 25 KOs) in a unification fight Sept. 3 in an outdoor soccer stadium in Sheffield, England, Brooks? hometown. . . .
Showtime is always looking for a good fight. Now it?s started one. The premium cable network filed suit recently against promoter Bob Arum, seeking $682,754.07 in legal fees it said grew from numerous civil suits by fans upset that Pacquiao, whom Arum promotes, faced Floyd Mayweather Jr. more than a year ago with a torn rotator cuff. Although the fight was the highest-grossing bout in pay-per-view history, Mayweather won a lopsided decision in part because, Arum claimed, Pacquiao was damaged goods going into the fight. Litigious fans soon sued Showtime for its part in what they claimed was a fraudulent event. . . .
While the WBC investigates heavyweight challenger Alexander Povetkin?s positive test for performance enhancing drugs, heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder (36-0, 35 KOs), will be allowed to make an optional defense despite the fact that Povetkin (30-1, 22 KOs) remains the mandatory contender for now. . . .
HBO has agreed to televise Kovalev?s Russian homecoming fight July 11. Although the fight will be on a Monday night, HBO plans to televise Kovalev?s title defense vs. Isaac Chilemba (24-3-2, 10 KOs). Part of the reason is a win by Kovalev (29-0-1, 26 KOs) keeps alive a projected November showdown with undefeated Andre Ward (29-0, 15 KOs), and this fight will keep Kovalev in front of the boxing public.
